Saturday, January 16, 2021

The end of the familiar trail - snippet from new #Fantasy for #WeWriWa

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday. Reading is a safe pastime during the pandemic. Sample the work of a new author. Read snippets of stories in different genres.

I’m posting snippets from my new fantasy about a witch and an elf. The book is up for preorder. The main character, Bridget Bramble, is forced to flee her home when a troop of armed men plunder the village and kill her brother.

In last week’s snippet, Bridget decided on a destination with the aid of her magic locket and bracelet of charms.

You can read the snippet here- https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2021/01/bridget-decides-on-destination-snippet.html

The final line is: She would make the journey over the mountains to Oakenwald and find her Granny’s kinsfolk.

This week, I’m skipping several days of her journey through the woods where she survives various perils. Until her parents died five years earlier, she had often traveled this route on hunting expeditions with her father and brother. Now, she is reaching the end of the (mostly) familiar trail.

Note, the journal is the diary her great-grandparents kept during their journey from Oakenwald to the village where Bridget had lived.

After another undisturbed night, Bridget took out the journal and flipped through the aged pages. The entries for the journey in the mountains were near the end of the book. Her great-grandparents had crossed the mountains in the company of traders who knew the route. Even with these guides, her great-grandfather had made notations in the journal and drawn maps for poorly defined intersections along the trail. A tiny sketch showed the path where they had descended down a steep rockface into Barringsland. If Papa was correct, she sat under the same cliff. Once she had mounted the cliff, she hoped to work backward from that entry to retrace their route and locate Oakenwald. Yet, her ancestors had traveled from the elven lands more than sixty years ago. In that length of time, she worried the trails might have become overgrown and untraceable.

And a few extra lines …

She followed the trail until it split into two. Taking the upper fork, she walked along on a narrow track veering toward the steep side of a mountain. The trail and mountain converged at a sheer rockface. The near-vertical cliff rose above the treetops to a height of some two hundred feet in her best estimate.

The cliff was too steep to climb, however, Papa had shown her the way to the top. He had led her along the path running between the pine trees and the base of the rockface. About a hundred paces along the path, the channel created by a cascading stream provided a tricky ascent up a staircase of rocks. He called it the stairway into the mountains.

 

 

Fantasy romance. A young witch escapes the destruction of her home and embarks on a perilous quest for the fabled land where elves and humans live in peace.

In a land threatened by cruel invaders from the east, Bridget Bramble lives in a small village where she barters herbs and carved buttons. When marauders target her village and murder her family, she flees into the woods. Armed with her Granny’s advice and a bag of magic buttons, she sets out on the perilous journey to Oakenwald, the fabled land where elves and men live in harmony. As she travels farther from home, she encounters malicious creatures from the worst kind of folktale.

Lost in the foothills of the mountains, Bridget meets the elf, Windswift the Wanderer. He offers to guide her across the mountain range. But what is the elf doing in human lands? Can an ordinary, or almost ordinary, human girl trust a cold hearted elf to lead her to safety? 

Epic fantasy adventure and romance with darker overtones. This story weaves elements of folklore and a quest for a safe haven in a land where magic is real.  

Pre-order at: AMAZON   iBooks   B&N   Kobo  GooglePlay   Other

 [It will release on February 3rd.] 

I’ll be happy to reply to your comments. 

Please return to http://wewriwa.blogspot.com/ to sample the works of the other writers.

 

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

Join me on Facebook and Twitter 

 

30 comments:

  1. Beautiful scene-building. It provides a vivid picture of what the character is experiencing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Definitely a good thing she has that map and detailed notes to guide her through this land. Nice snippet!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the world-building. I wonder when Bridget will meet the elf. I'll know soon enough. ;-) Just pre-ordered. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was planning to introduce him soon. She spends most of the book in his company. I hope you enjoy their story.

      Delete
  4. And so she's going up in the world. From the maps and descriptions of forks in the trail, I'd say her father had an admirable determination not to get lost.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He certainly taught her woodcraft. She has no problem living off the land with ripe berries and nuts to eat.

      Delete
  5. Nice descriptions and good for her ancestors to have drawn out such detailed maps.

    ReplyDelete
  6. She isn't afraid and has a determined focus. I'm enjoying this adventure.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Journals do such a good job of weaving past and future. Enjoyed the snippet, and seeing the world evolve.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. However, this journal was written some sixty years earlier and things have changed.

      Delete
  8. Really enjoyed the snippet and the whole concept of her deciding to retrace the old trail and try to find the hidden land.A very cool development in the story - can't wait for more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of the story is her journey to Oakenwald. She meets the elf on the way.

      Delete
  9. Wonderful world building. I love the detail of the maps she has so she can retrace the same trail of her ancestors.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very clever reversing the trail from the journal. Beautiful scenery but dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lucky thing she has the journal. This was a nice visual snippet.

    ReplyDelete
  12. She's a lot more stalwart than I would be with taking on this journey. Even with the journal I fear I'd not fare well at all. Great imagery in this snippet!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course our characters are often braver than we think we would be.

      Delete
  13. Enjoyed the world building. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It says a lot about her capability in the face of adversity that she thought to grab this journal. Hopefully that same capability serves her well with other obstacles she encounters.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Even in our world with a GPS I hate not knowing where I'm going. She's got a 60 year old map. I would be more than a little nervous, in her situation!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm wondering not only if trails have become overgrown, but if they've changed routes as well. Shifting a few degrees one way or the other could put her in an entirely different place than intended.

    ReplyDelete